


5 People Peter Parker Made Into Heroes

by EmberForge



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man - All Media Types, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: Angst, Family, Friendship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-03
Updated: 2018-05-02
Packaged: 2018-12-10 14:19:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11693457
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmberForge/pseuds/EmberForge
Summary: ...and one who was better off for it.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I promise I'm still working on my other Homecoming fic, but I've been really busy moving house this past week and haven't had enough time to sit and think and write! This is something I've been writing in bits and pieces on my phone in between boxes. I hope you like it!

Peter is five and a half and in kindergarten when his teacher tells his class that they're going to be drawing their heros. The whole class is incredibly excited about the opportunity to draw, and shortly after the announcement paper is passed out and crayons are flying everywhere as chubby hands and developing minds set out to create masterpieces.

Peter doesn't really know what a hero is, so he waves over his teacher. Mrs. Webb is a kind older woman with cropped brown hair and deep laugh lines around her mouth and eyes, and she never makes Peter feel afraid to not know something. When Peter asks her his question, she gives him a big smile.

"A hero is someone that you like a lot, Peter. Someone who's nice, and a good person. They might make you feel safe, or even do cool things. Remember Firefighter Deb who came to visit us last week?"

Peter nods.

"A lot of people think firefighters are heroes. Or people like Captain America," she says, pointing to the shield on Peter's shirt, "or other soldiers who fight to protect us. Lots of people think they're heroes too. Heroes can even be family, or friends. Draw whoever you think is your hero."

Mrs. Webb gets pulled away by another student's question then, leaving Peter to his thoughts. She gave him a very good answer, and it doesn't take him long before deciding who to draw.

Peter's Mom and Dad are always super nice to him, and give him plenty of hugs and kisses. They cut the crusts off of his sandwiches, and tuck him in at night, and always make sure to scare the monster under the bed away. When he has a nightmare, they're always there with warm milk and cuddles. They both have super cool jobs, too, and while Peter doesn't really understand the big words that they use to describe it, they tell him that they help a lot of people. Peter figures his mom and dad must be some of the best heroes in the world.

He's only a little worried when he finishes. Mrs. Webb did just say 'hero', after all, not 'heroes'. His fears are unfounded, however, because his teacher just gives him another big smile when she sees it, telling him how wonderful it is before hanging it on the wall where she's putting the rest of the drawings, on display for everyone to see.

A week later at open house, Peter looses his breath from how tight his parents hug him when they see it for the first time.

Two months after that, they die in a plane crash, and Peter never gets to feel them hug him again.


	2. Chapter 2

Peter has always been small for his age, but ever since his parents' death a year and a half ago, he's looked absolutely tiny. 

Uncle Ben and Aunt May can't make up for his loss, but they do the best they can by him. They take him to a children's psychologist every week, and while she says that she and Peter are making progress, rarely do they see any improvement. But they celebrate every small victory they can. The good days, when Peter eats all of his dinner, or sits to watch a movie with them, or plays with his action figures during those rare moments when he feels completely alone and safe. When the bad days happen (because there are far too many bad days) they hold him close when he wakes up crying from nightmares, leave him snacks in his room in hopes that he'll eat, and just make sure to be there so that Peter knows that he has a constant source of love and support.

He's incredibly closed off and quiet. He is smart, and always does good work, but never volunteers answers in class. He doesn't have any friends, either, though moving schools in the middle of the year definitely didn't help. Despite all of that, school is one of the things Peter enjoys most in life. School keeps you busy. When you're busy, you can forget about everything else.

While Peter has experienced far more that an almost seven old ever should, he's still a kid. So when his second grade teacher announces that they're going to start science class off with a video, he feels a minuscule stir of excitement in his chest as the other kids clap and cheer at the announcement. The lights dim, and the television flickers to life as a catchy theme tune fills the air. Peter had never heard of Bill Nye the Science Guy before, but as the video goes on, he decides that he really likes him. He looks nice, and is really funny, and makes learning fun. Peter had no idea that volcanos could be made even MORE exciting than they already were, but the older scientist somehow manages to pull it off flawlessly.

When the video finishes, Mr. Fischer announces that they'll be partnered up to make their own volcanos out of baking soda and vinegar, just like in the video. He brings out a cup full of colored popsicle sticks with their names on them and starts pulling them out in pairs, reading them off to the class. Peter listens intently for his name.

"...Edward and... Peter," Mr. Fischer eventually announces, only pausing for a brief moment before moving on.

Peter makes eye contact with the other boy, who smiles and waves from across the room. When Mr. Fischer finishes grouping everyone together, there's a bit of a shuffle as kids move around the room and push desks together, and soon enough Edward is sitting across from Peter. "Hi!" Edward says happily, the gap where his front tooth should be visible when he speaks.

"Hi." Peter's voice is quieter by comparison.

Mr. Fischer drops off their supplies, then quickly moves on to the next pair. Edward looks at the items, then nudges the brown clay gently towards Peter. "Do you want to make the volcano? I'm not too good at art."

"Sure."

"Cool. I'll get the other stuff ready then."

They both work quietly at their tasks. Peter, carefully sculpting a clay volcano, while Edward busies himself pouring out the various substances they'd use to create the reaction. He seems to take great joy in adding a large amount of red food coloring to the vinegar, and Peter silently approves. It is his favorite color, after all.

"Looking good Edward, Peter," Mr. Fischer says encouragingly as he passes by.

Edward's face takes on such a sour look behind the teacher's back that Peter can't restrain himself. "What's wrong?"

Edward leans in close. "I hate that name," he whispers confidentially. "I was named after my grandpa. He was some great war hero, or something. I dunno. My grandma always wants to compare me to him. I don't like it very much. I mean, I never even knew him! Just- just call me Ned, okay?"

"...Yeah. Okay, Ned."

Ned's grin is both thankful and relieved. "Awesome. Thanks. You know, you're the first person I've told about that?"

"Really?"

"Yeah. I mean, I don't really have any friends. Flash kind of picks on me and scares them away, you know? He's been calling me a vampire recently too, after that movie that came out with a vampire named Edward. I don't know much about it, but I know that girls like him a lot. My thirteen year old cousin is obsessed! She says that he'a dreamy and that he sparkles. Can you believe it? Vampires are supposed to be scary, not SPARKLE!" Ned waves his arms in the air in a disbelieving gesture, his face flushed from his passion on the subject. Peter, who had finished sculpting their lump of clay into a passable volcano, smiles at the boy's exuberance.

(Nobody there knows it, but it's Peter's first real smile since the night he found out his parents died. If May and Ben could see him at that moment, they'd be in tears.)

They continue to talk about vampires, and then about other monsters, and then sci-fi, and it evolves into a big discussion about Star Wars, which Ned is very passionate about. Peter had only just seen the first movie last weekend at Uncle Ben's insistence that it was "iconic" and "a classic" (or did they watch the fourth movie? Ned was very adamant about the numbering system, but his explanation left Peter a bit confused), and Peter had liked the movie a lot. Ned is shocked when he learns that Peter hasn't seen them all yet, and promises him that he'd ask his mom if Peter could come over that weekend so that they could have a movie marathon.

Their volcano is one of that last to be set off in an explosion of bubbly, red-dyed perfection, they talk so much. The chemical reaction makes them both smile, and Ned reaches over to give Peter a high five. It's unspoken between them, but they've both made their first official friend.

Bill Nye made science cool and gave Peter a friend. And though Ben and May don't know it, it's because of Bill Nye that Peter truly begins his road to recovery. It's no surprise, then, that that day, Peter decides that Bill Nye is his hero.


	3. Chapter 3

When Flash finds out that Peter can't ride a bike at ten years old, he teases him relentlessly for it. Peter's forever grateful for Ned, who tries to defend him, but that only causes Flash to to switch targets and start on Ned's Velcro sneakers.

(Unlike Peter's bike problem, Ned _does_ know how to tie his shoes. He just chose this particular pair because they have Ninja Turtles on them. Not that Flash cares.)

Peter grabs his friend's arm, intent on getting far away, when Flash's final comment makes him freeze. "What, Puny Parker, did your dad not teach you how to ride a bike? Oh wait, he couldn't, could he?"

This time, it's Ned who has to drag Peter away.

Peter's mood plummeted for the rest of the day. He only put in the bare minimum of concentration into class, and barely spoke. Even Ned couldn't manage to get more than short, one-word answers from him, and usually Peter would talk so much that Ned would have to remind him to breathe between sentences.

When Uncle Ben picked him up at the end of the school day, his mood hadn't improved. He hopped into the backseat of the car, tossing his backpack to the floor and buckling his seatbelt without a word. "Hey, kiddo, how was school today?" Ben asked, smiling at Peter in the rear view mirror.

"Fine."

"You had art class today, right? Make anything interesting?"

"Clay animals."

"Really? What animal did you make?"

"A monkey."

"...that sounds really cool, Pete!"

Peter knew that Uncle Ben could tell something was up. Still, he wasn't feeling up to his usual excited chatter.

When they got home, Peter immediately made a beeline to his room without another word, shutting the door before flopping onto his bed. He was grateful that May worked late tonight; she would surely be asking him more questions about his day if she were here, and he wasn't in the mood to answer them right now.

So what if he didn't know how to ride a bike. It's not like he couldn't walk everywhere or take the subway anyway.

An hour later, Peter was interrupted from his sulking by a knock on the door. After a minute of not answering, Ben slowly cracked the door open, pushing it wide open when he realized Peter wasn't asleep. "Hey kiddo, guess what? I have a surprise for you!"

"Maybe later," Peter mumbled.

"Aww, come on, it's really cool. I think you'll like it a lot. It's in the living room; just come and take a quick look?"

Ben gave him what May called his "puppy dog look." Peter just called it embarrassing. Still, his lips twitched as he answered. "Fine."

Just before they got there, Ben placed his hands around Peter's eyes, guiding him around the corner and a few steps into the living room. With a grand flourish, he removed his hands. In front of Peter was a shiny blue bike with a basket attached. It looked older, but well cared for, and had recently been polished to perfection. Ben plonked a helmet on Peter's head, grinning. "Ta-daa!"

"What?" Peter asked.

"I was worried about you, so I called Ned. He let it slip that some kids were teasing you about not being able to ride a bike- don't worry, he didn't tell me who. Yet," Ben added ominously, in the way that only a worried parent could. "I remember seeing Mrs. Santiago's son riding a new bike around recently, so I went over to see if she still had his old one, and she did! So, what do you think about going to the park for a lesson after dinner?"

Peter tore his eyes away from the bike for a moment to look at Uncle Ben, who wore an earnest expression on his face, looking at him expectantly. In the next second, Peter had wrapped himself around Ben's legs, his voice coming out muffled from where his face was buried in Ben's shirt. "Thank you."

"So I'll take that as a yes then?"

Peter nodded.

"Great! One more surprise then. Aunt May wanted to make meatloaf tonight, but since it'll take a while for her to get home and prepare, and I want to get out there as soon as possible, what do you say we order pizza tonight instead? We'll order extra cheesy bread so May can't get mad at us!"

Peter looked up at his uncle and grinned. "Yes please!"

As the night ended with Ben saving him from both future bullying _and_ May's cooking, Peter realized that Uncle Ben was truly a hero.


End file.
